Journalist James McNicholas fears that Arsenal fans are now set to turn on one player who struggled against Aston Villa.
Arsenal saw their hopes of winning the Premier League title this season suffer a significant blow as they slumped to a 2-0 defeat against Aston Villa on Sunday.
Mikel Arteta made changes to his starting XI for this match at the Emirates Stadium, knowing that a win would be enough to send the Gunners back to the top of the table and would keep the title race in their own hands.
However, perhaps with half an eye on Wednesday night’s Champions League quarter-final second leg fixture with Bayern Munich, the Spanish coach still elected to shake up his team. Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard, and Oleksandr Zinchenko all came into the side, with Gabriel Martinelli, Jorginho, and Jakub Kiwior dropping to the bench.
None of this incoming trio had a good afternoon against the Midlands outfit. Arsenal fans were far from impressed with Jesus, as the Brazilian failed to show that he can effectively lead the line. Meanwhile, Trossard once again failed to make the most of a start for Arsenal in the Premier League.
At the back, Zinchenko was far from his best, too. The Ukrainian left-back’s flaws are now becoming a real issue for Arteta.
Oleksandr Zinchenko failed to impress against Aston Villa
Zinchenko has always been something of a defensive liability for Arsenal. The £32 million former Manchester City man is not the best one-on-one defender, lacks pace, physicality, and can’t dominate in the air. However, in the past, he has been able to offset these deficiencies with his quality on the ball.
The 27-year-old plays the left-back role in an inverted fashion, meaning that he habitually drifts into the middle of the park, where he can give the Gunners a numerical advantage and act as an auxiliary playmaker of sorts.
At his best, Zinchenko is able to operate like a kind of quarter-back, firing passes forward between the lines, and carving out opportunities for his teammates. This season, though, there have been far too many careless passes and loose touches in Arsenal’s defensive territory from Zinchenko which have invited unnecessary pressure and danger. Plenty of these moments were in evidence against Aston Villa.
Are Arsenal fans running out of patience with Oleksandr Zinchenko?
There is certainly an argument that Zinchenko’s flaws are no longer outweighed by his creativity and security on the ball. He is now a weak link in the team, habitually targeted by opposition attackers, and he doesn’t have the current form to cope with this.
James McNicholas saw the Arsenal fans lose patience with the Ukraine international on Sunday. Speaking after the match on his On the Whistle YouTube video, the reporter said, “I think the knives will be out for Zinchenko on social media. He didn’t have a good day, and I sense that there’s a lot of frustration in the ground. There were a few boos, actually, when he was substituted in stoppage time.”
“He did make a number of sloppy errors. That sloppiness in his game, it’s a characteristic that I don’t think you’re ever going to eliminate. I think it’s part of who he is.”